Our most important community partner is you.

Our Mission

To protect life and property by being prompt, skillful and caring. Our actions are anchored in the core values of Courage, Leadership, and Duty.

We strive every day to be proficient, professional and compassionate for our community.

A Note From The Chief

You are the heart of what we do. Poudre Fire Authority is constantly working to improve and be proactive in the ever-evolving fire service. We are a proud community partner in Northern Colorado and beyond.

Collaboration with public and private partners in emergency services such as 911 dispatch centers, education, law enforcement, and healthcare helps us reduce risk, provide services that save lives and potentially increase quality of life.

In 2017, PFA developed a new Strategic Plan through a community-driven process to determine critical issues and service gaps. Goals moving forward include providing innovative core services such as Emergency Medical Services (EMS), structural and wildland firefighting and rescue; proactive communications; and continued financial...

You are the heart of what we do. Poudre Fire Authority is constantly working to improve and be proactive in the ever-evolving fire service. We are a proud community partner in Northern Colorado and beyond.

Collaboration with public and private partners in emergency services such as 911 dispatch centers, education, law enforcement, and healthcare helps us reduce risk, provide services that save lives and potentially increase quality of life.

In 2017, PFA developed a new Strategic Plan through a community-driven process to determine critical issues and service gaps. Goals moving forward include providing innovative core services such as Emergency Medical Services (EMS), structural and wildland firefighting and rescue; proactive communications; and continued financial responsibility. The 2018 budget focuses on funding capital needs (technology, facilities, and equipment) and staffing for EMS, inspections, firefighting, mechanics, and Information Technology. PFA prepaid its Lease/Purchase Agreement for Station 4 (1945 W. Drake Road), saving $450,000 in interest payments.

Looking forward, PFA will be innovative with fire-behavior research, drone technologies in public-safety applications, right-sized response deployment models, community-risk reduction, and educational opportunities. We will continue to be an active and engaged community partner.

– Chief Tom DeMint

Who We Are

Poudre Fire Authority is a multi-faceted entity — an organization, a family, and a community partner that is professional, committed, and responsible. Providing exceptional customer service through the values of Courage, Leadership, and Duty, is our number one priority.

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PFA firefighters deployed to other communities to help during wildfires and hurricanes

Funding Critical Services

Keep Fort Collins Great (KFCG) is a voter-approved sales tax that ensures people receive the level of government services they expect. KFCG is critical to PFA’s budget and sunsets on December 31, 2020. KFCG revenue is used at PFA to fund key safety positions, firefighters, and equipment. Without it, PFA would not be able to provide the same high-level services the community currently receives.

Community Connections

Firefighter Travis Garcia talks with a young attendee at a 2017 event where firefighters demonstrated how they help remove people trapped in crashed vehicles, a process called extrication.

Poudre Fire Authority strives to reduce risk in our community by empowering people to live their safest lives. Through in-person classes, events, and other platforms, in 2017, PFA’s staff collectively interacted with 11,456 members of the community.

Poudre Fire Authority has 24 volunteer firefighters who give their talents and hundreds of hours of their time to serve the communities of Stations 9 and 11, in the areas of Horsetooth Reservoir and Redstone Canyon, respectively.

The calm, collected, and compassionate regional dispatchers, who handled 200,000+ phone calls in 2017, assure Poudre Fire Authority firefighters arrive when you need them. You can help by registering your phone number for emergency notifications at LETA911.org.

Our Facilities

Station 1

Risk

Firefighters at Station 1 protect the oldest structures in PFA’s 235-square-mile service area, and the largest numbers of incidents occur in this area.

Features

This is the only PFA station with a functional fire pole.

Apparatus

A two-company house, this fire station is home to Engine 1 (650-gallon water capacity) and Tower 1, which has a tall ladder. It also houses two SUVs, one for a battalion chief and one for a safety officer. Rescue 1 is also housed here and used for incidents with difficult access or out-of-district responses.

Station 2

415 South Bryan Avenue, Fort Collins

Total calls in 2017: 2,065

Service Area: Covers 7.7 square miles and is located on the west side of Fort Collins near City Park.

Station 3

Risk

The area is home to many non-sprinklered multi-family apartments. It also contains one high-rise hotel and several newer student-housing units.

Features

This station abuts Spring Park and is the future site of a 911 Memorial Park with an I-beam from the World Trade Centers. Firefighters from Station 3 would be first-in on emergency incidents at the new Colorado State University on-campus stadium.

Apparatus

Engine 3 (650-gallon water tank)

Station 4

1945 West Drake Road, Fort Collins

Total calls in 2017: 2,769

Service Area: Covers 16.9 square miles on the southwestern portion of PFA’s suburban core.

Features

Apparatus

Engine 4 (650-gallon water tank), Bureau-1 pickup (staffed by a single firefighter), Brush 34 (used for wildfires), Command Post (RV used for major incidents), Rehabilitation Vehicle (revamped former city bus used as shelter from weather/firefighter rest), Air 1 (carries air tanks firefighters use for technical/extended incidents).

Station 5

4615 Hogan Drive, Fort Collins

Total calls in 2017: 3,350

Service Area: Covers 8.4 square miles in the southern portion of Fort Collins.

Risk

The planning zone contains several nursing homes and independent/assisted living facilities, as well as non-sprinklered buildings.

Features

Firefighters at Station 5 protect the busy Harmony corridor. The station is also home to one of two battalion chiefs; the battalion chief at this station oversees all the stations and firefighters in the south portion of PFA’s service area. PFA was able to add that position years ago because of Keep Fort Collins Great money.

Station 6

Risk

The primary life-risk in this planning zone is located along the Mulberry Street corridor due to numerous hotels and motels, as well as an industrial park located north of Mulberry Street and west of Summit View Drive.

Features

This station is home to the fire mechanics’ work area where PFA apparatus are repaired.

Station 7

Risk

Transportation-based risk presented by the highways that traverse this area. The wildland-urban interface presents a significant fire challenge as many residential homes are located interspersed in the foothills. Swiftwater (Cache la Poudre River) and stillwater (Horsetooth Reservoir) incidents also pose a risk here.

Features

PFA in 2017 purchased a house to the southwest of the station to be used for training, including search-and-rescue techniques. Four firefighters work full-time out of this station, compared with three at other single-company fire stations.

Apparatus

Engine 7 (650-gallon water tank), Engine 37, Boat 7 (includes SUV and trailer to tow the Zodiac boat used for water rescues)

Station 8

4800 Signal Tree Drive, Timnath

Total calls in 2017: 533

Service Area: Covers 18.3 square miles in the southeastern portion of PFA’s service area.

Risk

There are several industrial occupancies along the Harmony Road corridor, and Interstate 25 presents a significant impact in terms of the number of people and potential for vehicle crashes.

Features

Occupied December 2016, the station is 15,449 square feet. It replaced the former Station 8, located on Main Street in Timnath. It has a community room available for public use. It is the only station with its own training tower, so crews can practice skills without making time-consuming trips out of their service area to PFA’s Training Center in northwest Fort Collins.

Station 9

Risk

The residential homes that are located in the wildland urban interface are the primary risk in this area. Water supply is difficult here, and the topography and road conditions can make responses challenging. This station’s response area includes Horsetooth Mountain Park and Horsetooth Reservoir.

Features

This is one of two stations staffed by volunteer firefighters who give time to serve their respective communities by responding to medical- and wildland fire-related calls. This area covers the western side of Horsetooth Reservoir and several residential communities located here. Deer are among the station’s frequent visitors and are known to nap outside the station. During the summer, PFA staffs the station with seasonal firefighters, as well as volunteer firefighters.

Station 11

Risk

Homes here are in the wildland-urban interface. Being located in the foothills, winter weather can impact this area more severely compared to the rest of PFA’s service area.

This demand zone is the most rural and remote area in PFA’s service area and is entirely in the wildland-urban interface. The area is only accessible through one county road and some U.S. Forest Service access roads and contains no commercial occupancies.

Features

This is one of two stations staffed by volunteer firefighters who give time to serve their respective communities by responding to medical- and wildland fire-related calls.

Station 12

Risk

The College Avenue corridor in this area is home to some commercial/industrial occupancies. U.S. Highway 287 runs through this area with a significant amount of cross-country commercial truck traffic. The area also contains the largest proportion of surface water in PFA’s service area.

Features

Three firefighters work full-time out of this station, compared with three at other single-company fire stations. The station features a community room open to the public by reservation.

Apparatus

Engine 12 (650-gallon tank), Tender 12 (1,800-gallon water tank), Brush 12 (used for wildland fire response), CART 1 (The Customer Assistance Response Team helps people displaced by fires and other disasters to start the recovery process, be it filing insurance claims or working with a restoration company to clean up.), large-animal rescue trailer.

Station 14

2109 Westchase Road, Fort Collins

Total calls in 2017: 1,247

Service Area: Covers 13 square miles in the southeastern portion of PFA’s service area.

Risk

The area includes several medical and technology-based businesses. In addition, a water-treatment plant and some light-industrial occupancies are in this planning zone.

Features

Most structures in this area are newer, when compared to the rest of PFA’s service area, as a result of the growth of Fort Collins in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The station features a community room open to the public by reservation.

Training Center

Features

PFA firefighters and staff, as well as those from agencies from across the state and nation, use the Training Center nearly every day of the year to learn new skills, practice existing ones, and develop professionally to provide the best possible service to the community.

The Training Center features multiple classrooms, as well as a burn house, five-story tower and numerous other training props to facilitate learning that results in PFA personnel being as prepared as possible to prevent and respond to emergencies.

Apparatus

Training Engine, other support vehicles (SUVs, etc.)

Administrative Offices

102 Remington Street, Fort Collins

Hours: We are open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday (excluding some holidays).

Features

These offices are home to PFA’s Community Safety and Service Division, which encompasses the fire marshals, Human Resources, and more. This building also houses those people whose work centers around finance, IT services, and data and analysis, among others. The Fire Chief’s office is also located in this building. It also has a community room available to the public by reservation.

Hours

The offices are located adjacent to the parking garage at the corner of Mountain Avenue and Remington Street.

Building Emergency Response Models

PFA in 2017 piloted the Roving Alternative Medical (RAM) unit as part of a strategy to provide world-class emergency medical services to people in Northern Larimer County. For the pilot, trained firefighters responded in an SUV to certain medical-related calls. Among other pilot results, the RAM helped fire engines and trucks to remain free to respond to fires, crashes and more intensive emergency calls.

Fire-Sprinkler Systems Saved Lives

Each day across the U.S., fire-sprinkler systems put out fires with the potential to kill people and damage millions of dollars in property. That is the case locally, too. In 2017, there were two cases where sprinkler systems successfully extinguished fires – in the mere minutes before Poudre Fire Authority firefighters arrived on scene; one at a Fort Collins hotel and another at a Colorado State University laboratory. Learn More

CPR Saves Lives. Period.

Thanks to professional emergency medical services training, quick action and teamwork, Poudre Fire Authority firefighters were part of several core saves, or those related to saving the life of someone who experienced a sudden-cardiac arrest (SCA). Research shows a person’s chances of survival goes up the sooner a person receives cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, and application of an automatic external defibrillator, or AED, if needed. Learn CPR

Helping People in Need

PFA staff members partnered with Colorado State University social work students to install life-saving smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in high-risk, low-income homes in the community. The results? People were connected with social services to get much-needed help (think assistance getting food or kids’ school supplies) and emergency calls in those neighborhoods decreased within six months of alarm-installation events.

Innovation Takes Flight

The Larimer County Unmanned Aircraft System Program took flight in 2017 with the goal of using drones to enhance public safety services. Highly trained pilots from PFA and other partner agencies can use the unmanned aircraft systems to document the scene of car crashes as part of investigations, search for missing people, or to scout the origin of a wildfire. Learn More

A Somber Reminder of Fire's Impact

Our community felt the ripple effects of three fire deaths in 2017

Sadly, three members of our community died last year in unrelated fires in their homes. Two were due to cooking fires, and another is currently classified as undetermined. Let us be clear: They are not statistics. They are people — those whom others knew and loved. Their deaths each served as a critical moment during which PFA educated the community about why fire still presents a danger, even though the frequency of fires and fire-related deaths are decreasing across the country. Thanks to concerted fire-safety education efforts by nationwide partners, including PFA, the overall 10-year fire death rate trend in the U.S. decreased 21.6% from 2006 to 2015 (U.S. Fire Administration).

CPR is Easier Than You Think

There are a few simple steps you can take to save a life

Hands-only CPR has two easy steps. Step 1 – Call 911 if you see a teen or adult collapse. Step 2 – Push hard and fast in the center of their chest to the beat of a familiar song that has 100 to 120 beats per minute, such as “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees.

Thanks so much to the guys at Station 4 who magically appeared this morning and made our car accident a fun adventure for [our young son], and gave us a warm safe place to get sorted out.

- Dana

A great big thank you to the men and women of PFA who worked so hard at the Continental Circle fire. A quick response and a very professional team kept this fire contained. Everyone I met was pleasant and helpful in a time of great stress. Thank you for your work and your training, and the way you do it with grace. Thanks to you, many of us are sleeping in our own homes tonight. We appreciate you more than we can say.

- Bill

The guys at the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office and Poudre Fire Authority came to try and save my mom this morning. She did pass away, but I want to thank all of them for the hard work and attempts that you made to save her. God bless you all!

- Natalie

Thank you to Michael Durkin and Kelly Fahrlander for providing fire safety training to our bus operators at Transfort. Poudre Fire Authority and the City of Fort Collins can be proud to have you both providing a very informative, very well-presented, and enjoyable training. The new fire simulator allowed our operators hands-on practice with a fire extinguisher that will save lives. I highly recommend this training for all departments.

- Bill

Wow, you all have a lot of fires to deal with on a daily basis – more than I realized! That you for your efforts and for the update.

- Becky

Thank you for sharing this information. I’m grateful to live here in Fort Collins with such attentive emergency personnel.